January 24, 2017

Some From Column A, Some From Column B. ("Life, Medicated." Part 09)

When last I blogged about this, in early December, things were okay. And they still are, for the most part. But there's change on the horizon and I'm going to share it because that's what I do.

If there's one thing I've learned from my still relatively new journey through the land of psychotropics (those are mind medications, folks), it's that there is no such thing as "fixed."

Conditions are managed.

Medications are balanced.

I'm coping.

Things are handled.

But we never say, "ok, this is fixed." It's always more of a "good enough for now, let's try this and see what tomorrow brings."

Which brings us to where we are now. It's time to make some changes. I'm currently on two different medications, the Abilify and the Restoril. The dosage for the Restoril seems right, in that it is allowing me to get several hours of uninterrupted sleep each evening. That is really, really helping.

The dosage for the Abilify has been extremely low, and we are now going to bump it up just a bit. It's been helping me soften the edges a bit, so to speak, but there are still some extreme highs and lows that we think would be better off rounded off.

It's a little scary, I'll be honest. Things are working right now and increasing the dosage could adversely impact that. But, this isn't an exact science, and while I feel okay, I think things could be a little better. So I'm willing to follow my doctor's recommendation and see how this change affects me.

Why blog about something as inconsequential as a dosage change? Two reasons. One, because I made a commitment to share all the details of this process to help others understand what it all feels like. And two, a dosage change might seem small but the ripple effects can be significant. It's important that I track all of this as completely as possible.

Thanks for riding along on this journey with me, friends. I don't always know where it's going, but I'm always happy for the company on the way.